It doesn't take much to be green

Sunday

Aug 31, 2008 at 12:01 AMAug 31, 2008 at 6:17 PM

Many people may not have made up their minds about how active they want to be in the green movement. For those, we offer the following list of simple steps if you want get involved in protecting the environment. The order is not important, but the impact you make could be.

Many people may not have made up their minds about how active they want to be in the green movement.

For those, we offer the following list of simple steps if you want get involved in protecting the environment. The order is not important, but the impact you make could be.

1. Change your light bulbs

A standard soft white light bulb, or incandescent lamp, may be cheaper, but it has a shorter lifespan than compact fluorescent bulbs, or CFLs. The old bulbs must therefore be replaced about 10 times in the time it should take one CFL to burn out.

On www.gelighting.com and www.energystar.gov, the efficiency of CFLs is clearly stated. Energy Star states that if every American changed a single indcandescent light bulb in their homes to a CFL, America would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year.

General Electric’s Web site contains a chart that estimates the cost of a 13-watt Spiral Bulb, a CFL made by General Electric. This chart estimates that the cost of this bulb would be $3.77 at the counter with $12 of energy costs for its lifespan. On the other side, a 60-watt incandescent would cost 27 cents at the point of sale, but cost $50.16 with energy and replacement costs included.

2. Stop buying bottled water

According to the Food and Water Watch, the U.S. is the world’s largest consumer of bottled water, investing in 37 billion bottles in 2005. Bottled water not only hurts our pocket books, but also the environment. It wastes fossil fuels and water in production and transportation.

It takes more than 47 million gallons of oil to make plastic water bottles for Americans yearly. That would be like taking 100,000 cars off the road and 1 billion pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.

Not only is bottled water more expensive than tap water, it also clogs up the landfills. Breaking down these plastics can take thousands of years. Meanwhile, their components will seep into our water supply.

While bottled water is bad for the environment, it may also be more harmful for your body. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, there are very relaxed testing requirements for bottled water. They are only required to be tested for contamination during the bottling process. Water treatment plants are required to test tap water for contaminants several times a day. Water treatment experts recommend not refilling water bottle containers with fresh tap water. Plastic bottles may leak toxic chemicals into the water as the bottle ages.

A safe and more cost efficient alternative to bottled water is a reusable container that you can fill from the tap. The Food and Water Watch web site offers a Take Back the Tap Pledge. On this Web site you can join their campaign to eliminate your use of bottled water.

For more information, go to www.foodandwaterwatch.org/water/bottled.

3. Conserve water with a rain barrel

Rain barrels also play a big role in conserving water. Barrels capture and hold water during storms and can be attached to the spouts of gutters on the house.

“You can capture 50 gallons of water during a rain event,” said Lynee Hinkle, a founder of Kansas City initiative to build more rain gardens and rain barrels. “You can then water your plants later. Plants seem to do better with rain water instead of tap.”

Rain water is “soft water.” It contains no chlorine, lime or calcium and fewer sediments and dissolved salts than municipal water. It is ideal for watering vegetable gardens, raised planter beds and containers or indoor tropical plants like ferns and orchids. Rain water is perfect for automobile washing and cleaning household windows.

By saving the water in rain barrels you can conserve water at home, thus save on your water costs, and helping to avoid using municipal water supplies, which are becoming more depleted for sources as population increases.

For other ideas with rain barrels look on www.rainbarrelguide.com.

4. Wear organic cotton clothing

According to the Organic Trade Associate, organic cotton is different from regularly produced cotton because it is “grown using methods and materials that have a low impact on the environment.” Organic cotton production replenishes and maintains soil fertility and reduces toxic pesticides and fertilizer use.

Stores such as Target and Macy’s, as well as other department stores, sell organic cotton products, from baby clothes to bedding. Even Wal-Mart is joining in on the act.

While buying anything organic can cost a little extra, customers can find organic cotton products at fairly reasonable prices. A set of organic cotton sheets at Target or Wal-Mart cost about $50. Solid-colored organic tees can cost as little as $5.

5. Use natural cleaning supplies

The next wave of green products is cleaning supplies.

A variety of companies sell organic or all-natural products, including Seventh Generation, Mrs. Meyer’s and Method. Green Works is a line of natural cleaning products introduced in late 2007, made from ingredients derived from coconuts and lemon oil. The company defines natural as having ingredients that are plant and mineral based as well as having a petrochemical content of less than 1 percent.

All of the products – from an all-purpose cleaner, glass and surface cleaner and toilet bowl cleaner to a natural bathroom cleaner and dish washing detergent – are biodegradable, non-allergenic and packaged in bottles that can be recycled. They are not tested on animals.

In addition, the Clorox company is working to conserve energy and water while reducing the packing of its products and using more recyclable and renewable materials. While Green Works might be one of the newest all-natural product lines, Shaklee has been around for more than 50 years with a line of organic, natural and biodegradable cleaning supplies. As early as 1960, Shaklee made one of the first biodegradable household cleaners and are the first company in the world to obtain a climate-neutral certification from the Environmental Protection Agency. The certification means that the company has zero impact on the environment.

None of Shaklee’s products have chemicals found in other household cleaners such as kerosene, hydraulic acid, phosphoric acid, lye, ammonia or formaldehyde. For more information on the company, visit its Web site at www.shaklee.com.

6. Let your lawn go natural

Though treating a lawn with chemicals six or seven times a year may make it the greenest plot in the neighborhood, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency suggests limiting the use of such chemicals, as they are often harmful to the environment.

More preventive care can cut chemical use, but to eliminate chemicals, the Missouri Department of Conservation suggests revolutionizing your yard by introducing plants that grow naturally in your particular climate. Many lawns feature non-native plants, which require a lot of maintenance and often a large amount of chemicals. Native plants require less maintenance and no fertilizers and pesticides because they are far less vulnerable to the area’s insects and diseases.

According to the MDC and the Missouri Department of Agriculture have come together to form a program called Grow Native! to encourage conservation and the use of native plants. The Web site, www.grownative.org, lists native plants and describes the places in which certain plants will best thrive.

7. Use natural organic cosmetics

Synthetic makeups are petroleum-based, a depleting resource, and must be processed, using more energy and creating unnatural, potentially harmful chemicals.

According to the Nature Conservancy, more than 50 chemicals put into American makeup and body-care products have already been banned in Europe. Research there has shown some of these chemicals cause cancer and other ailments.

More than 100 eco-beauty lines have been developed over the last few years. Such cosmetic and beauty products are made of organic ingredients and without pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and fertilizers.

Look for products labeled “100 percent organic.” Those must legally contain all-natural ingredients. To be labeled “organic,” products must have 95 percent organic ingredients. Those products with 70 percent or more organic ingredients can use “made with organic ingredients.”

A cosmetic safety database, www.cosmeticdatabase.com, allows anyone to search for a product or company to check on the ingredients in various cosmetics.

One example of eco-friendly makeup is from Cargo Cosmetics, which has a lipstick line called Plant Love that offers more than just different shades for your lips.

The box the lipstick comes in contains wildflower seeds, so after you take the lipstick out of the box, add water and plant it in your backyard to grow beautiful flowers. When you are finished using your lipstick, don’t worry about harming the environment by throwing away the case, because it is made from corn, so it is biodegradable.

8. Invest in Socially Responsible Funds

The relatively new idea of green investing stems from an older philosophy of social responsibility based upon religious and then political beliefs. More than 50 years ago, a mutual fund began to avoid alcohol and tobacco company stocks. Other funds since have sworn off investing in those plus defense-related and other controversial companies.

But the green movement is not so much about avoiding companies as a positive focus upon firms dedicated to environmentally clean practices and purposes. Because of the newness of this industry, there are no long track records for these company stocks.

Mutual funds have generally been safer vehicles for investing than individual stocks and there are plenty of opportunities to use them with the green purpose too. Families of Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) managed funds include Ariel, Calvert, CSIF, Domini, Dreyfus Premier Third Century, Gabelli SRI, LKCM, MMA Praxis, Parnassus, Pax World, Utopia, Walden and Winslow.

For a relatively easy way to examine and compare these managed offerings, check out www.socialfunds.com. Although it includes some of the newer green funds, it serves the worthwhile function of providing a look at the actual performance of almost all SRI funds over various periods of time. Recent academic studies also conclude that SRI constraints do not detract from investor returns as they might have many years ago.

As always, remember that values of all investments ebb and flow in wave patterns within broad trends. Currently the broad trend for stocks continues to be downward.

9. Sack the plastic bags

Most sackers at grocery stores still ask the proverbial question of shoppers in the check-out: “Paper or plastic?”

Since their introduction about 25 years ago, plastic bags have dominated the market as the easiest-to-use, cheapest-to-produce option for bagging groceries.

But they are also bad for the environment, according the Environmental Protection Agency. They are made from petroleum. Between 500 billion and 1 trillion plastic bags are used worldwide each year, accounting for 60 million to 100 million barrels of oil.

Most plastic bags take anywhere from 400 to 1,000 years to biodegrade. They are also being blamed for the yearly death of thousands of marine turtles and other sea animals that mistake them for food.

Shoppers have another choice – reusable, “green” bags made of recycled paper.